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MR. BIRJVEY^S SECOND LETTER. 



To the Ministers and Elders of the Presbyterian 
Church in Kentucky: 

Dear Brethren, — I have concluded to address to you a few re- 
marks on the subject of slavery — one that has, for a long" time, 
deeply interested my own heart, and on which I have bestowed 
very careful consideration. Were I to set you down as indifferent 
to it, I know it would be doing- you great injustice. Indeed, so 
much do I count upon your right desires in relation to it, that, although 
I come clothed with no official authority in that branch of God's 
church to which we belong, yet do I presume that you will read, 
meditate upon, and with a just balance, weigh, any arguments that 
may be submitted to you in a christian spirit, come from what quar- 
ter they may. 

It is not my intention, at this time, to take up the whole subject 
of slavery, and discuss it in its details, or to answer the multiplied 
excuses that have been made by christians and others, for the help 
they have brought for its continuance. I mean rather to present : 
1. Some of the most prominent characteristics of slavery. 2» 
Some of the excuses of our church for not purifying herself from 
this sin, with answers to them: and 3. The consequences to the 
church and the state at large, if she should at once enter upon her 
duty. The characteristics to which I now ask your attention, are 

1. It orif^inatedj has always been, and is at this day, maintained 
by a violence that is utterly at variance with the mild spirit of the 
gdspe], 



9 MR. BIR>'EY's second LETTER, *^' 

3. It wrests from one set of men, without crime on their part, the 
fruits of their bodily toils, for the support and ease of another. 

3. Its effects upon its subjects arc to stupify and benumb the 
mind, to vitiate the conscience, to multiply sins of the grossest char- 
acter, to exclude the knowledge of God and Christ, as well as of the 
necessity of any preparation for the world to come ; and, of course, 
to prepare them for hell. 

4. Its effects upon those who mahitain it, and in some measure 
upon those who witness and consent to it, are indolence, diabolical 
passions, deadness to the claims of justice and the calls of mercy, a 
worldly spirit, and contempt for a large portion of our fellotv crea- 
tures ; therefore, as far as their qualifications for an eternal state are 
modified by slavery, it rather prepares them for the sentence of 
the damned, than for the invitation of the blessed. 

That the above are some, but by no means all, of the characteris- 
tics of slavery, no one, with our opportunities of witnessing the 
thing itself, will deny. Now, does it not seem passing strange, 
that a ' monster of such hideous mien' should have been received 
within the very midst of the church of God — that it should find in 
its bosom its surest and softest resting place — that it should be fon- 
dled, sleeked, and cherished there ? and that if any one attempt 
to tear him from his lodgment, with one consent all cry out, ^let him 
alone ! let him alone ! — we have become so accustomed to his presence, 
that much of his deformity has been taken aicay, and ive cannot do 
without him; we are -preparing him for his discharge, ivhich, as he 
is sloio to learn, he will probably be ready for, in some hundred or two 
years : then he can be dismissed without injury to any one concern- 
ed ; hut donH disturb him now ; he is very quiet, all things are going 
on well. Mmke what preparatiori you please for his future dismis- 
sion, but by no means touch him at this time. The church! the 
church! youHl endanger the church, and make it more unpopular 
than it now is. I charge you, ivaitfor a ' more convenient season."* 
God is opening the ivay for his discharge in his oivn good time. If 
you attempt it now, you will not only utterly fail, because all the 
CHxjKcn will be against you; and besides, they will call you, and 
join iviih those who are v.ithout in calling you, a madman and a 
fanatic — and your infuence will be destroyed.'' This is no caricature ; 
it is solemn, serious truth ; should it be denied, there are 'clouds of 
witnesses' to prove it. But to return. It would make this address 
too long, were I to notice exceptions which the scrupulous might 
raise ; or stop to present modifications that I might, under other cir- 
cumstances, think it desirable to make, of my positions; or to for- 
tify myself carefully, as I proceed, witli defences, as if I were 
contending with enemies. I shall not detain you to do so. I writ^ 
not to cavillers, nor to such as arc determined to remain unmovea 
by any thing that can be said ; but to brethren beloved, as I trust, 
by our common Lord, who are willing to do whatever may hasten 
his glorious reign on earth, and add to their own eternal weight 
of glory in heaven. 

If, then, slavery be characterized by violence, oppression, injus- 
tice — by tendencies to the ruin of the souls of both master and 



MRn sirney's second letter. 3 

%late— -why should you hesitate to s&y it ought to cease at on-ce ? 
You reply, the Bible does not decisively condemn slavery. In 
■support ol" this you say : 1. Abraham, the father of the faithful, and 
^ the friend oj God^ had servants, or Bls you would render it, ^ slaves^' 
, Now, admitting all that is asked in the case of x\braham, and that 
'^. the word translated ^ se?'i»aw^s ' means ^slaves,'' it will be found to 
*^ prove a g-reat deal more than you desire. For if it be argued— 
^ because he had slaves, therefore / may have them, it %vill equally 
, follow that prevaricatioE, if not falsehood, and concubinage may 
be justified ; for Abraham was guilty of both. But the word ^ser- 
^, vaiUs,^ I apprehend, means here, the subjects of Abraham, as a prince. 
^ The same word is used in reference to the courtiers of Saul, and 
to the most confidential part of the faithful little army that adher- 
ed to David during his persecutions by Saul. And in the 9tb 
chapter of the first of Kings, it is used in exact contrast to * bond- 
men.' Besides all this, in the same chapter in which the persons 
who constituted the army of Abraham are called his '■ servants, 
the patriarch himself calls them hjoung men.'' 2, The Hebrews 
were directed t9 make slaves of the surrounding nations. This is 
very true, when applied to the seven nations particularly mentioned 
in the 7th chapter of Deuteronomy, who, for their sins, had been 
devoted to destruction. But does it follow, because the people 
whom God had specially selected as the instrument to execute 
his judgmontS5#and had, on this account, excepted from the great 
law of love to the stranger, that ive are excepted from the obligation 
of this law ? Every exctpiion to a general law must be specially 
pleaded: and, according to the demands of common sense, clearly 
proved. To show the absurdity of this excuse : If the sheriff of 
Fayette county should execute a murderer, in pursuance of the sen- 
tence of death duly pronounced upon him, would this act, entire- 
ly justifiable, because directed by proper authority, furnish even an 
excusatory plea, much less one that would go to the entire justifi- 
cation of the sheriff of another county, for having put to death aif 
innocent man, uncondemned by any form of law, merely for the 
gratification of his own malignant temper, or for the promotion of 
some selfish purpose ? It is useless to give an answer to this state- 
ment. 

3. The Savior himself said nothing in condemnation of slavery, 
although it .existed in great aggravation ivhilst he icas upon earth. 
He said nothing about it, and to my apprehension, for this very 
good reason, that he did not preach to the Romans, or to the peo- 
ple of any other country where slaver}'" prevailed ; but to the Jcics, 
among whom the abolition principles of Moses' laws had already 
very nearly, if not entirely, extinguished it. On the same prin- 
ciple we may account for his sile^ice concerning many practices that 
are condemned by the spirit of his gospel, such as gambling, glad- 
iatorial and other cruel exhibitions, and offensive and ambitious 
wars, so common in his time, and carried to such enormity by the 
Romans and other Gentiles. 



4 MR. BIRNEY S SECOND LETTER. 

4. But Paul and Peter estahlish, or recognize as esiahtisJied, the 
relation of master and servant, (slave,) when they give admonition to 
both as to their reciprocal behavior. Il is very certain that this would 
not have been done, they being holy and inspired men, if the rela- 
tion itself ivas sinfid ; or if there was any thing i7i the subjection 
of one human being to the will and caprice of another thai was for- 
bidden by God's law. Now, if the word '■servant be used by Peter 
and Paul to mean'sZayes' exclusively — a meaning I admit enly 
tkat the excuse may have all the force it caa claim — their exhorta- 
tion to persons in this condition amounts to no more than what had 
been impressed before upon all who were, or might become, the 
victims of injustice or oppression, to bear it patiently. It was given 
with the same object and in the same spirit, as the command of the 
Savior himself, that the persecuted should pray for their persecutors. 
Had it been a common evil during the ministry of Paul and Peter, 
to which christians were exposed, to be cast into prison by the law- 
less power of individual persecutors, would the exhortations of 
these apostles to them to bear their sufferings with resignation and 
meekness, establish, or recognize as established, the relation of 
persecutor and persecuted'? or authorize christians to exercise griev- 
ous oppressions upon one another, or upon such of the heathen as 
they might be able to circumvent and bring into their power ? Or 
when Paul, through Titus, admonishes his brethren to be 'subject 
to principalities and powders, and to obey magistrates,' does he in 
the slightest manner sanction the imperial atrocities of a Nero, a 
Domitian, or any of their legitimate successors until now ? I know 
you will say, he does not; and'that he would have condemned in 
the conduct of those tyrants towards their obscurest subjects w^hat- 
ever was inconsistent with the great and universally binding law, 
Uhou shalt do unto others as ye would that they should do unto 
you.' If, then, Nero, for example, had submitted to the gospel that 
Paul proclaimed in his capital, and become an obedient disciple of 
the apostle — although he might have retained tlie power and au- 
thority of an emperor, yet his oppressions, his cruelties, would have 
ceased, the very temper that prompted them would have been sup- 
pressed, his power would have been put forth for good, not for evil, 
and he M'ould have been seen a prince dispensinof justice in mercy, 
and finding his own happiness in that which he daily scattered 
over a grateful people. Would he, under PauVs discipline, have 
seized upon the poor, the weak, the defenceless of his empire, that 
he might exact from them toil unrequited during their whole lives, 
and consign them and their innocent children after them to social 
and civil degradation in the midst of happy millions — to personal 
bondage, to mental darkness — to the power of vice and the domin- 
ion of sin — to hopelessness in this world — to shame and everlasting 
csntempt in that wiiich is to come ? Or had the converting grace 
of God found him acting the bloody and relentless tyrant, and 
thus fulfilling his relation to the oppressed, would he, Pctid being 
his teacher, have continued it during his lite ? And not content with 
this, would he — ccdling upon Paul to indite his last will wnd testa- 



MR. BIRNEY's second LETTER. 5 

mml — ^have perpetuated by legacy to his issue this continually 
growing mass of blood and groans^-of misery and tears.* But 
let us come down down from the tyrant over millions, tp his min- 
iature — brandishing the ensign of his authority over some half dozen 
of his fellow-creatures — and see how the matter stands. You in- 
sist that Paul recognized — that is, ccknowledged to he right — the re- 
lation of master and servant among his cotemporaries, of course, that 
it could not have been wrong then, when tested by the great prin- 
ciples of man's duty to his fellow man, preached by him in his own 
time, and which we consider as preached to all persons since. The 
inference you would deduce from these premises— one which is un- 
avoidable — is, that, as these principles can never change, as they 
were intended for the direction of men, in all time, (to say nothing 
of eternity,) this relation then right, must be so nojv. This I believe 
is a fair statement of the position assumed, on this passage, by the 
scriptural advocate for continued slavery. Admitting all the prem- 
ises to be true, the conclusion to whi«h you have come would be 
altogether undeniable ; and we would be authorized now to inflict 
upon our fellow-men, white or black, who might be reduced into 
our power, all the enormities of Roman or Grecian slavery. But 
there is an essential part of your pTemises—the approbafio7i of Paul 
of the injustice and cruelty of the master, covered up under the very 
comprehensive word, relalion, that I apprehend is very far from being 
maintainable : For if it can be maintained, it must be by making him 
nullify all those principles of moral action which he had been unceas- 
ingly inculcating upon his fellow-men, and of which he had been 
giving in his own conduct a bright example. For if this relation, 
[in which are to be included all the atrocious powers conferred 
hy the Roman laws in the time of Paul, as well as the powers, not 



* The natural tendency of slavery is to the second Heath — of liberty, to eter^ 
nal life, although there are exceptions in both — slaves frequent!}- giving good 
evidence of piety, and men who are free abusing their freedom to their destruc- 
tion. The slaveholder, then, is engaged in maintaining a sj'Stem which leads 
to deaths whilst God is maintaining one which leads to life. The slaveholder 
is conducting his five, ten, or twenty slaves down to the pit, whilst God is 
striving, as far as He thinks proper to influence rational mind, to raise them to 
heaven. What a reflection for the disciple of the merciful Savior! Let him 
not slop here, but make a calculation of tiie increase of his slaves for the next 
twenty, fifty, or hundred years, (it is too awful to proceed further,) taking for 
his ba'sis the increase of the whole number of slaves in the United States for 
the last forty years, that he may se« what multitudes he is, as far as we can 
tell, qualifying "for perdition. The christian who holds slaves during his own 
life, and ' wilis' them to his children afterwards, is doing, according to my poor 
apprehension, all that he can do to defeat the benevolent purposes of God, 
(These 'wills' will be bloody evidences at the judgment seat of Christ.) 
He sins himself, and produces' suffering as long as God gives him the physical 
power— not satisfied with this, he fastens the habit of suffering on his slaves 
and their posterity, and the habit of sinning on his own. May there not be 
strong grounds to fear, that, as he has been chief in this world in the dread 
preparations for misery, he will be fearfully preeminent in the dread retribu- 
tions of that which is to come 1 Can such au one dwell in the jiresence oi 
a God of mercxj? If he can, tell me I pray you, in what part ol the Bible 
you find a warrant for your belief ? I have not yet found it. 



6 MR. birney's sxconb letter. 

much less atrocious, exercised in some paTts of out own country now} 
be right f'^ it follon^s, consequentially, that to do any thing fairly neces- 
sary in the estimation of the superior in the relation, to maintain it;, 
eannot be ivrong. Thus, among the Romans, masters could put 
their slaves to death-, at pleasure; and it was done with great 
cruelty and freqErency : they kept then* slaves chained to the door 
pc^ts as jarhztors, they braade-^ them in the forehead, and, if the 
master was slain at his oAvn house and the murderer undiscovered^ 
all his domestic slaves were liable to be put to death. Under this 
'power, four hundred tvert put to death &n a single occasion. Will you 
drive the apostle to a recognition of sucii horrible deeds ? To an 
acknowledgment, that they were right? That there was in them 
no violation of tiie great /azt' of love'? No, you reply; this is too 
horrible. I rejoin, and say, that you cannot, then, on your own prin- 
ciple, charge him with the recognition of any violation, how small 
soever it may seem, of this law. For the same purpose, (the main- 
tenance of the relation,) it may be thought necessary by masters 
among us, to keep back the hire of the laborers who reap down 
their fields, (this is injustice)- — that, if a slave, in obedience to the 
very constitution of man's nature, when self-interest, the mainsprings 
of action, is taken from him, becomeindclent — if he be reluctant to 
s'pen A gratuitousli/ for another that property which the great author 
of his being has given him in his own physical powers, in his own. 
bones and muscles and sinews — he may be beaten and scourged to 
any extent, howerer cruel, till this indolence, this reluctance to an 
unrequited transfer of his labor to- another, this natural tendency 
to self-indulger>ce, be overcome, (This is oppression.) To the 
same end, it may be necessary, in the opinion of the master, in or- 
der to derive that profit from the relation which only makes it wor- 
thy of being maintained, that marriages among his slaves be dis- 
couraged, and a gross state of concubinage permitted ; that the 
wife be torn, at midnight, from the man of her love, and her scream- 
ing children wrung from her frantic grasp ; that the husband find 
his manly arms, intended for tlie protection of his helpless efTspring, 
bound in the weighty and sure fetters of the southern slaver; and 
the last, the sole atom of earthly happiness they were all enjoying^ 
cast upon the winds. This is cruelty/ umnixed — and to justify it, 
you bring the noble-minded apostle, who sufTered persecutions with- 
out number, distress and death, that he might bring men to love one 
another! J! 

Further: it might be that the whole life of a master would be 
passed in the perpetration of injustice, the exercise of cruelty and 
oppression; that a relation might be perpetwated whose substance 
is the aliment of the most overhearing despotism on the one part, 
and the vilest ahjectness on the other. If the sins that may be said 
to be inherent in slavery ; if injustice, cruelty, and oppression, were 
habitually committed against persons not in the relation, and unre- 
pented of, the perpetrator, by the judgment of all men, would be 
damned forever — if they were committed against our white 'neigh- 
bors,' a furnace hot as Nebuchadnezzar's would be too cool for 



MA. birney's second letter. 



him. Yet, notwithstanding his character may, by the indulgence 
of the worst passions against his slaves, have become as mean, as 
vicious, as degraded, and as unfit for the society of the just 
made perfect, as if he had indulged them against free persons, and 
his equals in society — because, forsooth, his slaves are in the rcla- 
tion, there seems to be no harm done, and at his death he is taken 
up to heaven, where all this treatment of his slaves — they being in 
the relation, goes for nothing. Thus it would appear that Paul and 
Peter, after exhorting men to do all— even to their eating and 
drinking, for the glory of God— to be holy in all i^anner of con- 
versation—are found supporting a relation whose sole object is, 
on the one side temporary convenience, at the expense of personal 
degradation on the other, and the moral pollution of both— whose 
universal tendencies upon the parties concerned, and upon ^society 
at large, have been mischievous, polluting, and unholy. To these 
apostles I do not think can fairly be attributed such miserable logic 
to support such miserable morals. _ _ 

For further illustration : suppose that during the ministry of Paul, 
a christian slave at Colosse, thinking himself treated in an unchris- 
tian manner by his christian master, had brought his case before 
the church whilst Paul was on a visit to that city. He would allege 
against his master, that instead of giving him, as Paul had direct- 
ed, what was just and equal for his services, he gave him nothing 
but his food and clothing, and these, in many instances, adjusted to 
his wants with the most scrupulous nicety ; that his ' threatenings 
were many, and liis scourgings not a few. The master may be sup- 
posed to have admitted all the facts of the case, and to have jus- 
tified himself in such words as these : 'As to the command to give 
my slave what is just and equal, I have never interpreted it to mean 
what the standard of justice among equals would require ; but rather 
that I should give him just what suited my convenience : and as ito 
ffivino- him what is equal, or, as he understands it, ajair equivalent 
for his services, it never once entered my head— for I might as 
well have no slave at all as to do this ; indeed, he would, if this 
be the meaning of it, soon be as free as I am. And as to the 
threatenings and scourgings that I have bestowed upon him, his 
own insolent claims, now reiterated— have justly provoked them. 
They are absolutely necessary to keep him humble and obedient, 
make him know his place, and to perpetuate the relation which you 
yourself have recognized, and know, ought by all means to be main- 
tained.' What now do you think Paul would have done, after hear- 
ing such an haranmie as this ? Would he have sent for the Phrygian 
slave code, have collated the laws, and heard testimony as to all the 
recoo-nized and approved customs of oppression ? Or/™lti ^^ 
have taken up the word of God, the perfect law of liberty, and 
quoted to him, ' in all things whatsoever ye ivould that men should 
do unto you, do ye even so unto them ? ' Brethren if such a case 
ghould be brought before you, how would you decide ? ^7 ^^^ 
laws and customs of slavery as they exist in Kentucky or by the boofc 
of God"^ If by the latter, what becomes of slavery .' It is shiver- 
ed to atoms. 



MR. BIRNEY'S second LETTER. 

In the most flourishing period of Greece, women held a very 
degraded rank ; they were considered rather as the slaves than the 
companions of man. There is no proof that in the time of the 
apostle, during her declension, their condition was in any manner 
ameliorated. Among the Romans, it was permitted to men to di- 
vorce their wives at pleasure, with, or without cause. 

By the Roman laws, absolute power over the child was given to 
the parent, «ven to the selling of him into slavery, or to the taking 
away of his life. Power almost as unlimited was given to the 
creditor over his insolvent debtor. If any one was indebted to seve- 
ral persons, and could not find a cautioner, (security,) his body, ac- 
cording to some, might be cut to pieces and divided among his 
creditors. 

Nov\^, Christianity recognizes these relations also: and at the very 
time, too, when all the enorjnities perpetrated by the superiors in the 
relation were authorized hy law. Yet, what c/imfmn, allowing even 
that there were no restraints of municipal laws — would, at this 
day, justify or palliate the unprovoked dismission of a wife, or un- 
feeling and dishonorable treatment of her, on the part of a husband 
professing Christianity, on the plea, that as Paul had recognized the 
relation as it Ih^n was, every thing that was then practised under it 
was allowable now ? Or who is there, that, on the same principle, 
would justify a christian parent for selling his child into slavery, or 
for taking away his life on any provocation ? — or a christian credit- 
or who would insist upon his rights, 'e/e debitore in partes secundo,^ 
in reference to his insolvent debtor ? No one : because Christianity, 
although recognizing these, and whatever other relations may be 
necessary for the real welfare of society, has cleared them from 
every foreign and hurtful ingredient ; she has lopped off from them 
every thing tkat is offensive to her own purity, and injurious to their 
most healthful and salutary exercise. Whilst she exacts from the 
ivife, subjection, she has secured her from all degradation by requir- 
ing the husband to honor his wife. Whilst children are taught obe- 
dience to parents in all things not inconsistent with their higher du- 
ties to God, they are protected from injury and outrage by the 
requisition upon the parents to rear them in the nurture and admo- 
nition of the Lord, and to lead lives of piety themselves. And the 
creditor, in one of^ the beautiful parables of the Savior, is exhorted 
by the highest motive that can affect man, his own happiness, to be 
merciful to the unfortunate and ruined debtor. The consequence 
has been, and always will be, that in societies where the duties of 
these relations have been performed in accordance with these direc- 
tions of wisdom, there has been more of domestic happiness and 
spiritual comfort, as Avell as of social order, and of intellectual and 
moral and political power. Let slavery as it exists among us be 
tested by the same rules that have been applied so successfully for 
their melioration to the relations above mentioned; let it undergo 
the same christian purgation that they have, and what will remain of 
it ? Nothing but the master who pays and the servant ivho receives 
what is just and equal, (a fair equivalent) for his services. TTiis is 



MR. birney's second ietter, 9 

the relation which the apostles establish, because there is nothing 
in it incompatible with the gospel, and it tears up slavery by the 
roots. 

Thus mucli for some of the chief grounds which it is supposed 
the Bible furnishes for the continuance of slavery. You will see 
I have thought hints would be sufficient, and that I have not car- 
ried out the arguments to the extent of which they are susceptible. 
This I leave for you ; knowing how capable you are of doing it, 
from your intimate acquaintance with the scriptures, your habits 
of intellectual exercise, and your desire to know the truth that you 
may do your duty. 

But is there not among us a large number, who, advancing a step 
further than those who equip themselves in the armor of the gospel, 
acknowledge that 'slavery is criminal' in the sight of God ; that it 
cannot be palliated ; that it is injustice, theft, rohbery ; that it gives 
rise to atrocities which even to think of make the cheeks burn ; yet, 
insist that ^how and when^ it shall cease, are questions by no means 
clear of difficulty ? Against such doctrine as this, so replete with 
fallacy and tending to bring upon the cause of truth a reproach 
that it does not merit, and an injury whose extent cannot be fore- 
seen, I wish to enter ray protest. It certainly requires no common 
boldness to take the position before an enlightened community, that 
an acknowledged sin — one proved to be such, too, by God's word 
KwA providence, should not bo repented of and forsaken at once. 
With what face would any of you who are ministers, after proving 
to your congregations that injustice, violence, oppression, were sins 
in the sight of God, and that He had denounced a ' tt'o unto him 
that useth his neighbor's service ivithout tvages, and giveth him not 
for his ivork^ tell them ' how and when ' these sins were to be re- 
pented of was a matter not clear of difficulty ? If white men were 
the sufferers from the perpetration of such sins, all would declare 
that the questions were clear of doubt. And is it true that when 
committed against the negro slave, God looks upon them as less 
criminal, and authorizes a different measure to be meted out, and a 
reasoning sui generis to be applied ? Would you not rather tell 
them, as the Savior and all his true ministers since have done, ^re- 
pzni ' — not to-morrow, or next day, but now ; and by restoring at 
once what has been withheld by injustice and fraud and force,do works 
that consist with repentance and prove its sincerity ? You would 
not, surely, at this time of day, in the present state of mental phi- 
losopy and religious science in the presbyterian church, tell your 
congregations that they have been committing sin for a long time, 
are doing so now, and yet say to them, all you ask as the 
ambassador of God, is, that they prepare to repent, that is, that they 
prepare to leave it off some ten, •fifteen, or twenty years hence ; or 
if any of them should in the meantime be hurried to their dread ac- 
count, their children or posterity will do it for them. You would 
not declare to them, all yowr master required was, that they should 
come to a full conviction of the sin noiv, but that from fear of loss, 
of the world, of the charge of fanaticism, of disparagement in fash- 



10 MR. BIRNEy's second LETTER. 

ionable estimation, of personal convenience, or of giving any shock 
to the structure of society, they might practise it until God in his 
own good time should remove the matter out of the way. This I 
am confident you would not do ; and yet, is not this the very doc- 
trine that is preached when slavery is acknowlededg to be sin, but 
that it is to cease at some future time ? 

But this has been found too bold for any but the most determin- 
ed slaveholder. It has therefore been much modified in its dress by 
saying, 'there are no specific commands in the Bible on the subject 
of slayer}', resembling those on adultery, theft, &c. that it is abol- 
ished in the Bible under the general commands, do unto others as 
ye would that others shoidd do unto you, &c. and in fulfilling these 
commands it is our duty to take into consideration the probable con- 
sequences of our conduct.' And has it come to this, in the presby- 
terian church, that a duty which is clearly ascertained to fall under 
the general command above quoted, may be postponed on that ac- 
count; and that its performance is less imperative than the perform- 
ance of such as are specified ; and that a man who, at one fell 
.swoop, has robbed another of all his rights as a fellow-being, and 
put him into the road to death, is not bound to as expeditious resti- 
tution as he who has stolen from his rich neighbor a six-pence! — 
that, in the Jirst case, the aggressor may take time to consider the 
probable co7isequences tQ his own estate, his name'and standing in 
society, and more than this, whether restitution of all his rights 
will not be injurious to the sufferer, and whether it would not be 
better for him, as he is accustomed to it, to remain crushed and trod- 
den down, and that his posterity come into the enjoyment of the 
rights that have been wrested from hiin, whilst in the latter he is 
bound to immediate restitution ? I will venture to say, if these 
be the prevailing homiletics of our church, the sooner she loses her 
name and individuality and influence, the better for the country 
and the world. 

I will now proceed to examine, very briefly, some of the parts of 
that alchemy by which the leopard has been made to change his 
spots, the contrivances of men to put aside the claims of God, and 
sin to become no longer sin.* I shall consider the objection 

* It is an inquiry not devoid of interest, though by no means very flattering 
to human pride, to trace how readil}', arguments for slaveholding accommo- 
date themselves to circumstances. At first, men are to be enslaved for the good 
of their souls ; when any attempt is made for their moral and intellectual elo- 
vation, the slaveholder insists that il has no other tendency than to make the 
slaves unhappy and himself insecure. When from tha increasing light of 
Christianity its professors become ashamed any longer to persist in the plea of 
brutifying their fellow-men, that they might hold them as slaves 5 and some stir 
is made by the friends of liberty and the country towards emancipation, the 
christian slaveholder cries out, 'not yet! not yet! for the world, not yet! it 
will be the ruin of the slaves if they are set free now ; the present generation 
are very ignorant, totally unqualified for freedom, the 7iext will be prepared, 
and then, what every body so much desires can be done advantageously and 
profitably for all concerned/ This puts the whole affair to rest again. All be- 
comes calm and tranquil. The present generation of slaves go to their audit, 
Ibe masters die and are buried. The next generation that was to exhibit full 



MR. BIRNEY's second LETTER. 11 

1. That slaves are not qualified for freedom. Wherever I go among 
the slaveholders of our church, this excuse is rife ; and it has 
been made so long and so loud, as to be thought fairly conclusive 
of the whole matter. It is very much of the same nature with the 
objection that was made to catholic emancipation in Ireland, by the 
ecclesiastical and civil aristocracy of Great Britain. What answer 
would such objectors have made to the corps of opponents to one 
of the most magnanimous acts of the British government, when it 
was alleged that all the institutions of the country would be broken 
up, and even religion itself could not be maintained under the ma- 
lignant influence of catholic emancipation ; that the vice and ig- 
norance of the catholics (continued at least, if not in some measure 
produced, by protestant persecutors) would break down every salu- 
tary barrier; and that they were only qualified for living under the 
restraints in which they had been reared ? Or to the autocrat of 
tlie Russias who should plead in justification of his recent carnage 
of the Poles, that this portion of his subjects are totally unquali- 
fied for any other government than the one which is crushing 
them into the dust ; that the tyranny which he exercises over them 
is not of his own enactment, but that it has been eiitailed upon him ; 
and that although desiring all good to this portion of his unfortu- 
nate subjects, he is still under the necessity of keeping up the old 
system of oppression to which they have become accustomed : but, 
tliat, in having it imposed upon him by his ancestors, and being thus, 
as it Avere, compelled to maintain it, he is the most unfortunate of 
men, deserving commiseration instead of blame ? Would such 
reasons as these be received with any portion of tolerance ? — 
Would they not be considered as founded in the most profound ig- 
norance of the constitution of the human mind, or to be the shal- 
low excuses of the rankest hypocrisy ? 

God has formed all men for freedom, just as surely as he has fit- 
ted them, in their physical conformation, for the pure air of the am- 
bient heavens. Freedom is man's appropriate element; that in 
which he acts best, and in which he shows most of mental and moral 
life : All others are unnatural, unhealthy, and tend to produce death, 
the death of the Avliole Jems' ; and they are the devices of ' man's 
inhumanity to man.' That the first part of this proposition is true 
we may easily satisfy ourselves ; for when we are deprived of lib- 
erty, nature is ever trying to regain it; she finds nothing that can 
be received in exchange for it ; and just as unerringly desires to 
escape from chains as she does to withdraw from the foul and 
pestilential atmosphere of a charnel-house. Do we not, then, say 
to God, when in his word and through his judgments, he thunders 

preparation for liberty, comes on the scene, with a new geaeration of masters. 
When the latter are reminded of the promises of their progenitors, they vocifer- 
ate the cry they have inherited witii iheir slaves, 'not yet! not yet! \>y no 
jTie^ins tins generation ; they will ruin themselves ; the 7iexi we know will b© 
prepared fully/ &c. &c. So it will go on to the last syllable of recorded 
time, or till 'not yet!' be drowned in the crashing thunders of heave>vs judg« 
ments, 



12 MR. BIRNEy's second LETTER. 

in our ears, 'let this people go that they may serve me,' Hhey can 
serve thee belter as slaves than in the condition for which thou didst 
formthem.^ Again: what has disqualified the slave for freedom — 
his 72a/i«-«/ state ? The c/mm* that we have cast upon him. Is it 
a reasonable course, then, to prolong a condition all whose results, 
down to the present moment, have been disqualificalion for freedom, 
with the expectation that it will yet, after the failure of our expe- 
rimentfor two hundred years, bring forth fruits that consist with free- 
dom ? Shall we be careful daily to make the chains more secure, 
and hypocritically tempt God with our prayers that he may remove 
them? If this excuse be a good one now^ and slavery be contin- 
ued, producing no other fruits than such as it has already yielded; 
it will be good ne.t^ ?/ear, next lustrum, next century ; and slavery, 
with all its horrors, is made perpetual. Are you willing to say 
Antcn ? But it is said in avoidance, that although the present adidts 
are, and must continue through the remainder of their lives, unqualifi- 
ed for freedom, and therefore should remain in slavery ; ive can qual- 
ify their children for freedom by bestowing upon them a suitable 
education, and rearing them under the influence of the hopes and ex- 
pectations of freemen. This enticing humanity Avas proclaimed by 
the slaveholders of Kentucky thirty years ago, to my knowledge ; 
how long before I know not. — Hoav carefully this pledge has been 
redeemed, is proved by the fact timt the generation which was then 
commencing and that was to be qualified for freedom, have grown 
up, and are the very persons upon whose vice and ignorance and 
disqualification at this time, the excuse for continuing slavery is 
founded. But we will pass this by, and examine with what fidelity 
we are redeeming our pledge of preparing their successors, the pres- 
ent youthful generation, for freedom. A few of our people buy 
primers, spelling-books, and testaments, for them ; and on Sunday 
morning or afternoon they are instructed for an hour or two by the 
children or the junior members ©f the white family, in the elements 
o^ reading. In a few of the towns and villages, sabbath-schools for 
the blacks are established, in which they receive instruction for an 
hour, or an hour and a half. This comprises all or nearly all the 
means that are in operation to prepare the rising generation of 
blacks for freedom. There are day schools for the free colored 
people, one at Louisville and another at Lexington; if any slaves 
are sent to them for education, I am uninformed of the fact. Now, 
I ask you, if you believe that there are, out of tiie whole number 
of colored people in this state, (amounting to probably, 200,000,) 
5000 who are receiving elementary instruction in reading from 
private eff'orts and the sabbath-schools together '} Are there, in your 
opinion, /m^/" that number who can read the bible understandingly 
and with ease ? Are there one thousand who in addition to facility 
in reading English, can write a hand sufficiently legible for the 
transaction of the plainest business ? Are there one hundred who 
add to reading and writing, as above, a competent knowledge of 
arithmetic, as far as the rule of three ? I suppose these questions 
m 1st all bo an3wered in the negative. I know not one, either per- 



MR. BIRNEY's gECOiVD LETTER. 13 

sonally or from information, who can read, irriie, and cypher. I do 
not pretend to j)recision of knowledge on this point ; and if I am in 
error, I shall gladly receive correction from those who have more 
accurate information. The conclusion to which my mind has 
been brought on the subject of preparation, is corroborated by this 
fact, that there is not, so far as my knotdedge extends after carefidin- 
quiry, even among its most strenuous advocates, any regular deduc- 
tion made from the time of f eld-labor or domestic service of their 
slaves, to bestow upon them this preparation. Now, brethren, judging 
from the experience of the past, and our knowledge of the present, 
of what weight is the excuse for continuing slavery, based upon 
' preparation .^ ' Is it saying more than the naked facts will warrant, 
that its advocates, whatever they may intend, act for the perpetua- 
tion of slavery ? If so, are you willing to unite in such action, or 
to continue it for another day ? 

2. But we are willing to give up our slaves, if every body else will ; 
or if they all can be removed from the country. Whoever says 
this, subjects his sincerity to violent suspicion. The condition in 
each case, though not physically, is morally impossible ; and it would 
not be more unreasonable to say, that you would give up your slaves 
if the sun would cease to shine. You are a p?-eac/t<:r, pressing upon 
an impenitent friend the necessity of personal holiness; he replies, 
to all your earnestness, that he will submit to God in doing his will, 
if all his neighbors will go with him. What now would you think 
of his head, or his heart, or his manners ? As to removing the 
slaves from Kentucky, sit down and make the calculation of their 
present numbers, probably 200,000 ; their yearly increase, say 5000 : 
consider what has been done towards removing them for the last six 
or seven years, during which period the //lecr?/ of colojaization has 
been favorably cherished by our countrymen ; that there have been 
removed only about 150, nearly if not quite half of whom died on 
the passage to Africa, and in the seasoning of her deadly climate : 
calculate the cost of removal and of six or twelve months mainten- 
ance of 5000 annually, after their arrival on the shores of that con- 
tinent: calmly contemplate the nature of the public mind which it 
is indispensable should be brought up to a full approval of the 
scheme: and after doing all this, if you still think the plan of re- 
moval is the most practicable one for the extinguishment of slavery, 
or that it is practicable mt all for this purpose, I have not another 
word to address to you on this subject. The mind that could be 
led to such a conviction, after duly considering the facts, is too far 
gone in love with a darling scheme to be reasoned with. 

3. But we fear amalgamation — or in other words, that there will 
be intermarriages between the whites and the colored people. Al- 
though I look upon this objection as unsuitable altogether to a 
manly mind that has been careful to enlighten itself on this subject, 
and impartially to reach its conclusions upon all — and upon amal- 
gamation as having no natural connection whatever with the conceB- 
sion to our slaves of their rights as men, yet, believing that it weigha 
somewhat with honest minds which hare not taken enlarged views 



14 MR. birney's second letter. 

af the consequences of emancipation : and that it is frequently used 
with no despicable effect by tlie opponents of all eff"orts in favor of 
freedom ; I shall not, as I had at iirst intended, pass it by entirely 
unnoticed. I have said that amalgamation has no natural connec- 
tion with emancipation : neither has it, any more than the assump- 
tion by the emancipated of any other of the pov/ers belonging to 
our civil or social relations. Who fears the blacks will, if emanci- 
pated, become our school-masters, our college-professors, our preach- 
ers, our lawyers, or our physicians ? No one. Why ? Simply be- 
cause they would, on account of their ignorance and total want of 
literary or scientific qualification, be totally incompetent ; there- 
fore, there would be, on their part, no aspiration to the offices, and 
on ours there would, very justly and very certainly, be exclusion 
from them, if they should aspire whilst deficient in merit. Now, 
from the superior tenderness and delicacy of the marriage relation, 
and from the greater care we exercise lest our friends an.d connex- 
ions enter into it unworthily, I entertain the opinion that alliances 
of this kind would be far less successfully sought by the colored 
people, than the public stations awhile ago mentioned. Many of 
us would be well contented with persons as school-masters, preach- 
ers, lawyers, or physicians, Avith M-hom we would have insurmount- 
able objections, (leaving outof viev/ personal likings or dislikings,)to 
contract the marriage relation. Now, when to ignorance, degra- 
dation of caste, and a great deficiency of those qualifications, intel- 
lectual, moral and pecuniary, which secure social equality, is added 
thoX physical repugnance on the part of the whites, so earnestly al- 
leged; it seems to me that a stronger barrier of defence in the 
premises could not be erected. If you and every one else fear and 
repel amalgamation, you and they will be safe from its danger: 
for we may rest very secure in the belief, at least so long as there 
is an equality of sexes among the colored people, that Sabine vio- 
lence attempted against Uo by a concerted movement of the black 
ladies and gentlemen, will not be the world's gossip during the pres- 
ent century. It is very certain, that so strong would be the preju- 
dice against amalgamation by the present generation of adults, and 
probably for several to come, that even the valor of a Sesostris 
or the charms of a Cleopatra could not overcome it. And it does 
appear to my poor judgment scarcely a sufficient reason fur con- 
tinuing a great trespass against our fellow-men, because some hun- 
dred years hence, a prince -royal of Jamaica, or the duke of Barba- 
does, the countess of Porto-Rico, or one of the royal maids of 
Cuba, dressed * in the livery of the burnished sun,' may overcome 
it in the person of one of our great-great-great-grand children. It is 
difficult to treat such an objection with the seriousness becoming 
the subject. Being nothing of a match-maker myself, and knowing 
no one in all the circle of my acquaintance who is in the least peril 
on this ground, I have not considered it as possessing the least 
solidity, 

4. But if we set our slaves free among us, ihey icill turn round and 
ciU our throats. This would be bad enough, truly: but do you enter- 



Mfe. BIRNXY's SECo:^D LfiTTEtl. 15 

tain any serious apprehension of such a result ? For if you do, I 
shall be compelled to attribute it either to conscious guih for bad 
treatment of your slaves, or to a total want of manhood. We have 
succeeded, thus far, in keeping in subjection these people, whilst 
committing against them the greatest trespass that man can commit 
against his fellow, whilst withholding from them rights for which 
men in all ages have hazarded life, fortune, and hc-nor ; and yet, 
when we restore those rights peaceably and kindly, it is most stout- 
ly maintained, that they to whom they are restored, will turn and 
rend us. This is surely unsound philosophy — altogether at variance 
with the laws of mind, as well as with historical facts : for I am 
very sure that those who insist upon the objection may safely be 
challenged to produce a single well-authenticated instance to shovv, 
that dangerous or even inconvenient consequences have followed 
the sudden emancipation of large bodies of slaves. Now, I am by 
no means so sanguine as to indulge the belief, that in emancipa- 
tion will be found a. panacea for all the ills that flesh is heir to; but 
that they will ultimately be immeasurably diminished by it I cannot 
for one moment doubt. And I wish it always borne in mind whilst 
we are discussing that part of the subject which relates to the expe- 
diency of emancipation, that it is not the introduction of a new and 
untried evil, where none of kindred character existed previously ; 
but that it is the substitution of an evil, in tlie opinion of its ad- 
vocates, light and transient when compared with the evil of slavery, 
whose ultimate tendency, in the judgment of all consideFate men, 
who have weighed it, is to crush us. 

Now, to every one of you who is a slaveholder, and in whose 
mind exists an apprehension of the danger predicated in the ob- 
jection, I am bold to offer some means of defence from all harm. 
Say, you have become convinced that slavery, as it exists among us, 
is a sin before God ; that you have repented of your own guilt in 
this matter, and are now anxious to show fruits that consist with re- 
pentance: you summon before you your servants — the fathers and 
mothers, and such others of them as may be old enough to under- 
stand an explanation of the principles upon which you are about to 
act; you say to them, you have become convinced that the bonds 
in which you have held them are inconsistent with the law of love 
to our neighbor, enjoined by God upon every man ; and that moved 
by the sacred authority of the religion you profess, you have de- 
termined to continue the sin no longer. With this, you read and 
then deliver to them, accurately authenticated deeds of manu- 
mission for themselves and their children. You further say to 
them, ' as T have already given to you the most convincing proof I 
can furnish of my friendship, it is not my intention to push you out 
of my doors, desiring never to see you ,again — exposed to the im- 
positions of a world with whose business you are in a great measure 
unacquainted, or to the prejudice and scorn of such as cherish for 
you no kind of sympathy : no ; if you choose to remain in my em- 
ployment, I will pay you what u just and equal, a fair equivalent 
for your services. I will continue to feel for you the love, and est- 



16 MR. birney's secoi^d letter. 

tend to you the conduct of a christian ; I will assist you in pro- 
viding the means of educating your children for usefulness in life, 
and should you so choose, in binding them out to profitable trades 
and employments ; and I will be your sure and steadfast friend, and 
your protector so long as your conduct shall not render it improper 
for me to be so.' I ask you, now, if after doing this, and kneel- 
ing down with them at the footstool of God's throne to thank him 
for the christian courage he has bestowed upon you, and to im- 
plore his blessing upon the down-trodden and the poor, in their 
new estate, you would fear the flames of the incendiary, or the 
knife of the assassin ? Hateful as is to many the very name oi' aholi- 
tion, here it is in its essence — and its safety is sure, because it is 
the offspring and the exhibition of benevolence. 

Well, after all this, you say, ' what can ive do ?' I answer, you 
can rise up to-morrow and liberate all whom you hold in bondage. 
'But,' you reply, ' what effect would tiiis have upon the great body 
of slaveholders in the State ?' I will undertake to affirm, that by 
such a course, small as is your number, you will have crucified the 
giant-sin of our land ; his dying struggles may be fierce and long 
protracted, but his dissolution will be certain, because the death-blow 
will have been given. The ministers and rulers of any of the larger 
denominations of christians have it in their power to-morrow to give 
the fatal wound to slavery in Kentucky — and if in Kentucky, 
throughout the slaveholding region of the union — for how would 
the congregations over which God has placed them, and upon Avhom 
they would then be authorized to press this subject with all its 
overpowering weight upon sound consciences and christian hearts, 
stand in the blaze of such virtuous action, and not be consumed or 
won by it? If it were to prevail among presbyterians alone, how 
long could the other denominations hold their fellow-men in bond- 
age ? Aof twelve months, as I honestly believe. If then you will 
come up to the next synod, after having 'loosed the bands of wick- 
edness, undone the heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, and 
broken every yoke,' so far as you are concerned, you have the prom- 
ise of the Lord that 'thy light shall break forth as the morning, 
and thy health spring forth speedily ; that thy righteousness shall 
go before thee, and the glory of the Lord be thy re-reward.' You 
may, it is true, be called madmtn ; but Paul was so called before 
you. You may be called fanatics, fools, and knaves ; but Sharp, 
Clarkson, and Wilberforce, were so baptized by the enemies of hu- 
manity: you may, at first, obtain but little honor from men ; but 
you will win an eternal weight of glory from God. That you may 
be influenced by Him so to act, is the earnest desire of your friend 
and brother, 

JAMES G. BIRNEY. 
Mercer County, September 2 J, 1834, 



54 Mr 



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